Red Velvet Cake

I love RED food. I am not a foodie but something about red food makes me drool all the way.

I love everything about dessert in red colour. A cake, a traditional kueh or puddings, there is just something about that colour that attracts me.

I baked a red velvet cake before. It wasn't disaster but there was nothing of it that 'umpph'. That made you go high for every bite of it. And it was from Joy of Baking. Ok now you know :p

Then I also tried Red Velvet Cake from Bisou.com and it was bland!

This time (ok I baked it like 2 months ago), I tried another version of a red velvet cake, from Bakerella. And it was the best red velvet cake I'd ever taste! Every spoon of it made me high. It was moist, the crumbs were perfect, the frosting was to die for and I can't stop eating it without thinking I would gain extra few kilos after that. Seriously it was a perfect Red Velvet Cake!

The decoration of the cake on the other hand, I was tempting to do that like forever! But never had the chance to do it until this cake.

I know, I don't have a sturdy hand. I might not even get the right consistency for the frosting but who cares?

The deep red hues colour was the most brilliant thing about this cake. I pour almost 1/4 bottle! Oh, I used Americolor anyway.

Back to the recipe.

Red Velvet Cake

From Bakerella

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

2 tbsp dark cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups oil

1 cup buttermilk (almost 1 cup milk with 2 tbsp white vinegar)

1 tbsp vinegar

1 tsp vanilla essence

Red food colouring (I used around 2 oz. too!)

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celcius.
2. Whish lightly the two eggs with other liquid ingredients; oil, buttermilk, vanilla essence, vinegar and red colour paste.
3. Put all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, stir it together to break any lumps, then add wet ingredients onto dry ingredients. Mix it on medium speed until well combined.
4. Pour onto a greased pan (or two pans) and bake for 30 minutes.

The cream cheese frosting that is to die for (seriously this is my favourite cream cheese frosting so far!) is from here; Bisousatoi. i know it wasn't the usual typical type of cream cheese frosting where you just mix it all at once in the mixing bowl, but this one is worth to try!

Next mission: Rainbow Cake!

Southern Coconut Cake with a hint of Love!

Few weeks ago Kek Alunan Kasih was a hit among food bloggers. Everytime I opened one, this cake will take its pride to be the first on the list. And almost every bloggers has tried it. I was one of them too, of course. There's just something about the layering that made me attracted to.

But I change the recipe. Instead of using the original ingredients for the batter, I opted for a Southern Coconut Cake recipe. I don't know why I did that but I was pretty sure mainly because people commented the cake was nothing more than a butter cake. I always wanted something more and so I disobeyed.

The original Coconut Southern Cake calls for 4 1/2 tsp of baking powder. That were heaps of baking powder, I know. And so I thought it would raise pretty high. So I plan to bake it in two different pans.

To my horror actually it did not raise as high as what I expected. My heart sank. Nobody likes a kempis cake. And I baked it for a kenduri tahlil for my dad. I brought it along anyway to JB, went to Tesco and bought almond slices, heat it in the microwave until its brown, take it out and arranged it nicely on top of the cake so that I can cut it in big square like a brownies.

I like the taste actually and it was a hit among the guests. But maybe because they were attracted to the colours (like what my sister said).

One thing about the cake is it is fragile and crumbly! Few minutes after cutting and arranging the cake for the kenduri, it turns into this;

But it was a good good cake. Maybe one day I will try the original version.

Southern Coconut Cake ala Alunan Kasih

Adapted from AtenderCrumbs and Pn. Mastura Yasak

5 egg whites

1/2 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups cake flour

2 cups sugar (I reduced the amount)

4 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter

1 cup coconut milk

Cocoa powder

Food coluring

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celcius.
2. Put the egg whites in a bowl and whisk lightly. Add the 1/2 cup of milk and vanilla and mix well. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Beat the dry ingredients with a paddle attachment on a low speed to remove any clumps. Add the butter and coconut milk and continue beating until combined.
4. Raise the speed to medium and continue beating for another 2 minutes.
5. Add the egg mixture in two or three addition.
6. Divide the batter into three bowl. Add colour onto each bowl and mix well. Pour the first layer into the pan, sieve cocoa powder all over the batter (make sure you cover everything), pour the next colour carefully, sieve cocoa powder and pour the last layer on top of it. Give it a tap or two then bake it for 30 to 40 minutes.

ps: you don't have to bake it in two pans like me. Silly me :(

My first attempt of a layer cake...

I'd never bake a cake lapis before. My bf's mom somehow is a pro when it comes to baking a Sarawak lapis cake. She gave few different types of the cakes last eid. And so I decided to try baking one. But this is an Indonesian lapis cake. Kan?

Anyway, the cake was hideous. I know. I totally forgot to press it to eliminate any bubbles! Only when I baked the last layer only I remembered about it.

I brought the cake to Sabah for X'mas or makan-makan during our family gathering and we forgot to take it out from the fridge, soooooo................ I can't explain how it tasted like!

It was supposed to be a higher cake but I don't know what went wrong, I only managed to get about an inch high. Cake lapis terpenyek. Cis. And I think it was a bit dry and less sweet.

Hopefully when I bake my second lapis cake tonight, everything goes well *fingers crossed*

And if you insist on knowing which recipe did I get, here. But I won't give up. I know it is not easy to make a layer cake and so I will try to bake it again and again until I get it right :) What a spirit! Hahahaha.

And this is not a nugget!

I came across with the recipe from 17 and Baking. I googled it again and again just to make sure everything is right. And I just bought two new baking pans from my holiday in Sabah and I just really need to bake something to try the new pans.

And so I decided to bake this.

The pans were not as good as I thought it would be :( The mini bundt cakes were nothing like the mould. And it made the crust sort like a nugget-crust. A breadcrumbs.

But the cakes were good. But the scent and taste of the lemon juice was too strong to me.

Cruze Farm Buttermilk Pound Cake

Adapted from 17andbaking

1 1/2 cup butter

3 1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 1/2 cup sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup buttermilk

juice of 1 lemon, strained

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celcius.
2. Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda. Beat butter and sugar until white and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add in vanilla essence.
3. Mix in the flour alternately with buttermilk in 3 batches. Stir in lemon juice.
4. Pour into pan and bake for 75 minutes (mine is less).

ps: I know it is very hard for you to find a buttermilk. Just mix full cream milk with half lemon juice or 2 tbsp of white vinegar, let it stand for 10 minutes and you will have your homemade buttermilk.

Coffee Cake

Zanna, my friend baked a coffee cake. And I also wanted to baked a coffee cake :p Because I know eventhough I ask for a slice of it, it would be long gone before it reaches me. So.....

Found this recipe from The Pioneer Woman ages ago. Bookmarked it then finally had the courage to try it last week. Anyway, if anyone found The Pioneer Woman Cooks book, please please please let me know. Or better, buy it for me! Thanks.

Coffee cake is not really a COFFEE cake, silly. It is called as coffee cake well, because the people from west countries eat this cake (or any cake) in the morning for breakfast with coffee or evening (with tea/coffee). Just like how we dipped our Ping Pong cream crackers, they did that with their cake. Hence the coffee cake (Whats the necessary with the explanation? *cough* because I used to get confused before. Things happened; I search for any coffee ingredients in the recipe!)

If you look into the recipe, you can see that it uses white eggs beaten until fluffy and folded in into the batter at the very last step. Believe me, its totally worth it! Although you can't feel your hand afterward from all the high speed hand whisking frequency (mine wasn't. Because I forced Obe to do it for me!).

The cake was soft. Super soft! Very very soft! Get it? But I do recommend you to use lesser sugar both in the batter and also the topping.

Good luck!

The Best Coffee Cake Ever (as claimed by Ree)

Originally from Thepioneerwoman

Cake:

3/4 cup butter

2 cups sugar (please, reduce the amount!)

3 cups flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup milk

3 eggs white, beaten until stiff

Topping:

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup flour

1 1/2 cup brown sugar(less less less!)

2 tbsp cinnamon powder

1 cup walnuts

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celcius.
2. Sift together flour and baking powder. Whisked egg whites until stiff.
3. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add flour mixture and milk alternately in 3 batches, begin and ending with flour. Fold in egg whites. Do not over beat.
4. Combine together all the topping ingredients in another bowl using your bare hand (unless you have a pastry cutter) until crumbly.
5. Pour the batter on your pan (I used 8x8x3) then sprinkle the topping on top of it.
6. Bake 40 to 45 minutes.

Remember, use LESS sugar! And I am serious.

White Chocolate Cheesecake

I baked this somewhere in November. Hehe ya I know! I have so many recipes to post yet no time at all to spare for blogging.

I am back from the holiday. The whole family had so much fun, but only if my brother and his wife were there too.

So anyway, back to this cake. One of my friend was a big fan of my cakes. She came to my open house during Raya and completely blew of after tasting my cheese cake and straight away begging me to bake for one of her friend's birthday. And so, the business began.

I baked this during Raya. And she asked for the exact recipe. But I know I had to try some other recipe that yield almost the same cheesecake but even better when you tasted it. I googled and found one.

The original recipe uses 3 boxes of cream cheese. I should use just two because of the price of the cake that I sold (you really need to be good in adjusting the ingredients with the price) so I altered some of the amounts and ingredients.

And sorry. I totally forgot where did I get it. From Allrecipe.com I guees?

White Chocolate Cheesecake (Version II)

1 cup shortbread crumbs

3 tbsp wugar

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 1/2 cup white chocolate, chopped

1/3 cup cream

2 package of Philadephia cream cheese

1/2 sugar (or less)

3 small eggs (must be small, gred B or less)

1 tsp vanilla essence

1. Mix shortbread crumbs, 3 tbsp of sugar and melted butter in a medium bowl. Press mixture into a springform pan (I used 6").
2. Preheat oven to 165 degrees celcius. Melt white chocolate with cream in a heatproof bowl over a simmering water until smooth. Remove from the heat.
3. Beat together cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl until well blended. Add in eggs one at a time, mix well after each addition. Add in vanilla essence and melted chocolate. Mix well.
4. Pour over the crust, smooth the top.
5. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes. Let it stand in the cooling oven for 4 hours. When its cool, cover with a cling wrap and refrigerate overnight before removing the pan.

I am sucks when it comes to decorating!

ps: I seriously don't know how the cake tasted like. I asked my friend and she loved it, as always!

Devil Food Chocolate Cake

The last time I baked for my boyfriend was 4 years ago. We had just started dating and it was his birthday. I wasn't that enthusiastic as I am now with baking but I still baked him cupcakes. It were mini cupcakes, I don't remember what flavour, with peanut butter frosting. The frosting was hideous! And watery! I tried to draw on the small cupcakes but all went fugly.

But it still was my first ever homemade cupcakes/cake for him.

I decided to surprise the boyfriend yesterday so I baked him a cake. Not the usual humble cakes I usually baked. It was a chocolate cake!

My piping skills sucks T_T I really don't know how to decorate a cake. Seriously, it took me a longer time to frost than baking!

And the boyfriend and housmates and officemate (Oh now I am blushing) loved it!! Sumpah tak tipu!

I drove in the middle of the night from my house to KL just to meet him but I couldn't resist to had one slice of it. So I brought along a knife and a tupperware, for me! Hahahahaha.

And this is how it looks like :) Pretty, no?

Devil Food Chocolate Cake
From Kitchen Guardian

Cake:

1 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
65g butter
1 large egg
1tsp vanilla essence
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup warm water

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees. Sift together all the dry ingredients; flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg.
3. Add dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk+warm water mixture in three batches begin and ending with the flour.
4. Add in vanilla essence and continue mixing.
5. Pour into a greased pan and bake for 30 minutes. I used a 9 inch heart shaped pan and had to baked twice. Double the ingredients or use a smaller pan if you want a higher cake.

Cream Cheese frosting:

250g cream cheese at room temperature
125g butter
1 cup icing sugar (Yikes! I use 1/2 cup. Enough with all the fat :p )
1 tsp vanilla essence

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add in butter and continue mixing until light and creamy. Add in sifted icing sugar and mix well. Lastly, add vanilla essence.

Chocolate Ganache:

250 ml double cream/whipping cream/ thickened cream
300g dark chocolate/baking chocolate chopped

In a double boiler, warm the cream until it is hot enough to melt the chocolate. Remove from the heat and mix in the chopped chocolate. Stir until melted. Let it cool before use.

To assemble:

After both of the cakes has cooled down (remember I baked twice?), spread few big spoon of cream cheese on top of the first cake. Spread evenly. Arranged slices of strawberries on top of it then spread another layer of cream cheese.

Take another cake and put it on top of the first one. Spread evenly cream cheese frosting all over the cake, at the sides and on top of it. Put it in the fridge for 15 minutes. Take it out and pour ganache all over the cake.

Deco it as you wish ;) Good Luck!

Cookies galore!

Christmas is coming. We're going back to our hometown, Sabah. I know I have to bake something for them. And I baked, as usual, my famous M&M's cookies :)

And also the regular Chocolate Chips Cookies.

Sorry. No recipe for this one :) But I can assure, this is the best cookies you'd ever had! I have few secret ingredients which make it even more 'Amos'!

And I found this recipe from a blog. It was claimed to be the almost Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies, I tried it and blergh. It didn't taste the same at all! I baked an even better cookie!

I substitute chocolate chips with one cup of chopped Daims. Although I still like the praline-like, fudgy caramel, I hate it when it tasted a lot like a kuih raya, not a cookie. So sad.

But if you insist in baking it;

Almost Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Bisousatoi

250g butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp coffee oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup blended oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup ground almons
1 cup chopped daim/chocolate chips
2 cups self raising flour

1. Two hours before bakng, beat in the egg with vanilla and coffee oil. Let it stand at room temperature.
2. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add salt. Mix in the egg and stir in blended oats, ground almonds, walnuts and daim. Fold in the flour.
3. Bake for 10 minutes (mine was 15 minutes) or according to your oven, for small cookies.